WisBusiness: DANEnet pushing for more connectivity, tech education

DANEnet, a nonprofit based in Madison, is bringing more web connectivity and tech education to Dane County.

“I’m hoping people will sort of understand digital equity as an important issue,” said Alyssa Kenney, executive director and accountant for DANEnet, which has been around since 1995. “Sometimes it gets forgotten when we think about housing, we think about food, we forget about asking about connectivity. And it’s critical; it connects to everything.”

Kenney spoke Wednesday at a Madison meeting of 1 Million Cups, an entrepreneurial group with chapters across the country. She pointed out that despite a high level of connectivity in Madison, there are also many who lack at-home access to the internet — 14,000 households in Dane County alone, she says.

And one in three U.S. adults report needing additional digital literacy skills, Kenney says.

“They might have a computer, they might have home connectivity, but they feel like they can’t quite use it; they don’t know what’s real, they don’t know what’s an ad, they don’t know what’s spam,” she said.

The nonprofit is trying to bring low-cost tech education to Dane County residents through specialty events. Examples: coder dojos and maker clubs — “that would be a time where a kid might solder, or learn some additional coding… and we only do them in places where kids wouldn’t be able to afford a program.” Read the full story here.

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